– Yuki Tsunoda was thrown in at the deep end at the Dutch Grand Prix but managed to impress: The Japanese driver had to step in at short notice for Racing Bulls and finished in a solid eleventh place, just ahead of his teammate Arvid Lindblad.
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But when asked by Motorsport.com, a sister platform of Motorsport-Total.com in the Motorsport Network, whether his chances of a permanent return to Formula 1 had improved as a result, Tsunoda initially had no quick answer.
The Japanese driver took a long time to think. After seven seconds, he finally looked up and laughed: “That’s cheeky, isn’t it?” After another pause of more than 15 seconds, Tsunoda even turned to the Racing Bulls press officer and asked her if and how he should best answer the question.
Since she then sent him on to the Japanese journalists, Tsunoda had little time left for an answer in the end: “Please call me!”, the 26-year-old addressed all Formula 1 teams – well aware that almost no cockpit is free for 2027.
Tsunoda prefers to race in Formula 1 rather than IndyCar in 2027
Although Tsunoda was recently linked with a move to the IndyCar series, his priority remains Formula 1. With his performance in Zandvoort, he was at least able to prove that he is competitive even under the complex technical conditions of the current Formula 1 generation.
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“It is definitely better to have this opportunity than to have no opportunity at all and thus not be able to show what I can do with these rules.” Tsunoda left a good overall impression with his spontaneous comeback.
The Racing Bulls driver managed to stay close to his teammate Arvid Lindblad in lap times throughout the weekend. In both qualifying sessions, he qualified twelfth and finished the race in eleventh place – ahead of Lindblad.
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Photo gallery: Zandvoort: Driver ratings by Marc Surer and the editorial team
“Honestly, I think I was able to make faster progress than I expected. Since my last race in Abu Dhabi, I have only driven four times in eight months. And for that, I did pretty well,” said the Racing Bulls driver after the race.
Tsunoda adapts quickly to the 2026 car
The Japanese admitted that the switch from the ground-effect cars he had gotten used to in recent years to the current vehicles was quite a challenge. On an energy-intensive track like Zandvoort, energy management was not the decisive factor, but the adjustment was significant.
Although Tsunoda had already extensively tested the Red Bull in the simulator this year, he had not tested the Racing Bulls. And even though the two cars are closely related, the behavior of the real car differs significantly from that in the simulation.
“I think the hardest part was actually everything – many things, learning the deployment, the buttons, everything, all the processes are different. And this race was also challenging because of tire degradation, the degradation behavior was completely different.”
“So it was mainly about how to adapt to it. But honestly, the team supported me a lot,” praises the former Red Bull driver who returned to his old team. “They made it easy for me to drive as fast as possible.”
“It’s a shame I didn’t score points, but I take it as it is,” says Tsunoda. “I was fighting until the last few laps against drivers for eighth or ninth place, I would say.” And so after his appearance in Zandvoort, the main message to the teams for 2027 remains: “Please call me!”
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